Cooper’s Cave

Cooper’s Cave. The Last of the Mohicans. , "At the further extremity of a narrow, deep cavern in the rock...was seated the scout (Hawkeye).... The cavern had two outlets.... He crossed a deep, narrow chasm in the rocks which ran at right angles to the passage they were in, but which...was open to the heavens, and entered another cave.... [Hawkeye explained that], 'These rocks are full of cracks, and at some places they are softer than at othersome, and the water has worked out deep hollows for itself... The rock proved softer on each side of us, and so they left the center of the river bare and dry, first working out these two little holes for us to hide in.' “ , Natty Bumppo (Hawkeye) in The Last of the Mohicans, Chapter 6., The Characters , Cooper's 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans, is set in August 1757. The hero, Major Duncan Heyward of Virginia, is escorting two half-sisters from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, commanded by their father, British Col. Munro., Cora Munro, the elder, is beautiful, brave, outspoken, and resourceful. Daughter of Col. Munro's deceased first wife, a West Indian woman of partly African origin, she is acutely conscious of the discrimination that she (like Native Americans) faces in colonial America. Alice Munro, daughter of Col. Munro's second, Scottish wife, is pretty, dependent on her half-sister, and helpless in the wilderness., Capture and Rescue , Magua, a Huron Indian, has been assigned to guide Heyward and the two young women to Fort William Henry. Unknown to them, he bears a longstanding grudge against the Munro family, and promptly leads them astray., Major Heyward and the Munro sisters are unexpectedly rescued by the British Army scout Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo), and his two Native American friends the Mohican Indians Chingachgook (The Great Snake) and his only son Uncas., The Indians are described by Cooper as the "last" of the once powerful Mohican Nation, now reduced to extinction. After further adventures, they all take temporary refuge in the cave at Glens Falls, the cave that Cooper had visited in 1824. But at dawn they find themselves under siege., Struggle on the Island , Attacked by Magua and his allies, Hawkeye and his friends fight desperately for survival, at times in hand-to-hand combat. When their ammunition runs out, Hawkeye and his two Mohican companions, at Cora Munro's insistence, escape by water to seek help. Major Heyward and the two sisters try to hide in the second cave, but are discovered, captured and led away by Magua. Thus ends Chapter 6 of Cooper's novel, set in what would become Cooper's Cave on the island in the Hudson at Glens Falls. , The Rest of the Story , Hawkeye and his Indian companions again come to the rescue of Duncan Heyward and Cora and Alice Munro, and lead them safely to a reunion with their father at Fort William Henry, now itself under siege by the French army of General Montcalm., In the confusion following the Fort's surrender to the French, and the massacre which follows, Magua again captures Cora and Alice, and takes them into the deep wilderness of the Adirondacks. Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas, accompanied by Col. Munro and Major Heyward, follow their trail., In the heart of the Adirondacks Native Americans still follow their traditional way of life, divided into warring communities of Delawares (allied to the Mohicans) and Hurons. As Hawkeye and his friends seek to save Cora and Alice, the story comes to its lengthy and action-filled climax.